Work-life balance top priority for job seekers: Universum survey

As per Universum’s annual survey of more than 24000 students from across Indian universities, Google is the most attractive workplace. And surprisingly, work-life balance seems to have become the most important criterion while seeking jobs!

In an attempt to examine the aspirations of India’s youth—engineering, IT, commerce, business, and MBA students— the study also tried to identify the ‘Top 100 Ideal Employers’, based on the responses of the students. Not surprisingly, Google continues to rank no. 1.

As per the study, MBA students in India prefer to work for management & consulting, investment banking, and FMCG industries. However, 40 per cent of the undergraduates, choose to work for the auditing and accounting industries.

International employers continue to attract Indian students, as 46 per cent of the respondents wish to work for them. This is supported by the fact that nine out of the ten most popular employers are international companies. Interestingly, girl students, are more keen to work for a national organisation, as compared to boys. It is clear that girls prefer working for firms that are able to showcase workplace diversity in their employer brand.

The survey reveals that business and commerce students will give priority to companies that can promise them ‘high future earnings’. On the other hand, engineering and IT students will go for companies that offer a friendly work environment and are into innovation.

The most interesting finding was that, unlike in the past, for the very first time, Indian students seemed to be seeking work-life balance more than anything else. Earlier, an international career was most sought after. This clearly indicates that young talent and job seekers within the country have started opening up to opportunities on home soil, and are confident that they will be able to achieve their career goals here.

This means, companies offering flexibility, dynamic culture, and more space and freedom to the workforce to achieve work/life balance will have higher brand value.

As per the study, students and young talent in India rely on social media the most to gather information about potential and future employers.

Therefore, presence on social media is important for companies to attract quality talent. LinkedIn is the no.1 channel used by MBA students, while Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are more popular with business/engineering students.

The Top 10 IDEAL Employers as per business students are Google, EY, Deloitte, Apple, KPMG, Amazon, Microsoft, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and State Bank of India, in that order.

For engineering and IT students also Google topped the list, followed by Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, BMW Group, Facebook, L&T, Infosys, Audi and TCS.

Google is the top preference for MBA students as well, followed by Google, Amazon, Apple, Deloitte, JP Morgan, Microsoft, McKinsey & Co., TCS, BMW and Facebook.

Companies, such as Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), IBM, L&T, Infosys and Accenture are amongst the names that appear in the list of top 100 preferred employers for MBA, IT/engineering as well as business and commerce students.